Analogous Colors

Analogous (uh-NAL-uh-gus) colors sit next to each other on the color wheel. They tend to look pleasant together because they are closely related.

Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh

Orange, yellow-orange, and yellow are an example of analogous colors. They are blended nicely in Sunflowers, a painting by Vincent Van Gogh. How do you know that these colors are closely related? They share a color—each of them contains some yellow.

TRY IT! Choose a primary color and a secondary color. For example, you might choose blue and green. Don't they look nice together? That's because they are analogous. With just these two colors, you can create even more analogous colors—blue-green, green-blue, and others in-between. All of these will have a color in common: blue.